Meet Uzbl — a Web Browser With the Unix Philosophy

DigDuality writes "Dieter@be over at Arch Linux forums, a release engineer for Arch Linux, got inspired by this post. The idea? To create a browser based on the Unix philosophy: 'Write programs that do one thing and do it well, programs that work well together, programs to handle text streams because that is a universal interface,' among other points. The result? A fast, low-resource browser named Uzbl, based on WebKit, which passes the Acid3 Test with a perfect score. The browser is controlled (by default) by vim-like keybindings, not too dissimilar to vimperator for Firefox. Things like URL changing, loading/saving of bookmarks, saving history, and downloads are handled through external scripts that you write (though the Uzbl software does come with some nice scripts for you to use). It fits great in a tiling window manager and plays extremely well with dmenu. The learning curve is a bit steep, but once you get used to it, it's smooth sailing. Not bad for alpha software. Though built for Arch, it has been reported to work on Ubuntu."

Comments

Geeze I'm behind the times

[zegebbers]

Thought built for Arch it has been reporting to work on Ubuntu.

I'm still using my computer!

Re:But that's a faulty comparison

[gregorio]

1. Doing server work from our phones are not optimal, but it is however useful - you are saying that servers only go down when you are at work, good for you, however in the real world the tend to do backflips when the only handful of people with access are on vacation on the other side of the world - this is where having a phone with SSH access is nice.

You're mostly praising network connections. You can use any editor to edit a remote file (you don't necessarily need a remote shell) and you can even install a safe HTTP administrative tool and manipulate your entire server over the web.

2. UltraEdit has a steep learning curve just like VI has - yeah you *might* be able to do notepad stuff right of the bat, but so fucking what? You can do that in Notepad, show me anyone who can do what I can do in VI who has spend less time figuring it out.

You are forgetting a very useful tool that GUI editors make use of: THE EYES. If you pair it with basic language skills, it allows the application to contain OBVIOUS paths to commands, in the form of TOOLBARS, MENU BARS and other graphical representations of commands. It's easy like: "Oh, I want to change something about how I view this document. OH GOD, I WONDER IF THIS 'VIEW' MENU CAN HELP ME".

This argument is always used by most "I'm macho" nerds who think they're really cool for using macho-like old and unproductive tools. And the argument always fails.

3. Your statement about learning curves makes no sense, spending time learning something doesn't require you to give up your life, in fact, spending a bit time learning how to do things a faster way will often save you time over the course of your life.

Faster? HA HA HA.

Me, using my US$ 2500 modern IDE, built for embedded design:

• Start the project wizard
• Choose the proper settings
• Insert my own code inside the basic template
• Compile and simulate/upload using a single click
• Debugging and even code hot-swap are already configured and solved

You, using macho-like tools:

• Headaches
• Headaches
• Headaches

Do you know who achieved more? I DID. Who coded more core, with better conventions and modularization? I DID. That's because you'll spend your precious time trying to fix the tool while I'll spend it USING the tool.

Result: I can finish several projects in a month and spend a lot of times playing with boobies. It's even better considering that US$ (A LOT) - US$ 2500 = US$ (STILL A LOT). I could easily purchase my IDE every week and still be more profitable than using archaic macho-like tools.

And code more, meaning: be more leet than you'll ever be. I will brag about something I built and worked, while you'll still be bragging about being able to use an archaic tool and all you will have achieved is setting up a useless and archaic development environment.

You = "Hello world".

Me = CHANGING THE WORLD, MAKING A DIFFERENCE.

Re:But that's a faulty comparison

[m50d]

The editor designed for *power* is Emacs, whose LISP interpreter can't be beat in that department.

Of course it can. Lisp has a very vocal fanbase, but it's not actually any better than dozens of modern programming languages.

Re:New name

[techprophet]

You apparently don't know anything about me. Stop assuming.

And sarcasm requires tags except in really obvious instances. That post was not obvious. There were many other posters trolling marketing crap on here.